A slice of life from someone still figuring it all out

07/28/2014

Mark and Brian Sutcliffe of Westlake, OH, started a donation drive to get soccer equipment to players in Liberia.

Got clutter?

If so, you probably want to get rid of it. But you may not want it all to go in the garbage and take up space in a landfill. A way you can avoid that, and do good while you're decluttering, is to donate things people and organizations can use.

Charities that offer pick-up at your home make donating easy. You arrange a pick-up time, leave the stuff out, and they take it away. You could even get a tax break for your donation. Some organizations that offer curbside donation pick-up include:

My primary goal this time around was to do a major purge. After a year and a half of apartment living, I have a better grasp on what we need and what doesn't fit our lives anymore.

Throwing stuff out can feel really liberating. Sometimes, it's letting go of the past. Or, it's a step in curating your memories. Other times, it's an empowering feeling of being in charge, and of knowing what's important.

It was Christmas in July here, as I tackled the holiday stuff first. I condensed three bins of gift-wrapping supplies -- paper, ribbons, bows, tags, tissue, boxes -- down to one. The cards were pared down to fit a portable file box. I purged about a bin's worth of indoor and outdoor Christmas decor. The ornaments and other Christmas tree supplies remain out in the living room, as we'll be taking those to my sister's barn for storage.

07/17/2014

The best things in life are sometimes the simplest: sun, sand, and water.

Moving back east has allowed me to reconnect with one of my first loves: the beach.

While I lived less than a half-mile from the shores of Lake Erie for 13 years, I didn't go to the beaches there much. They made me homesick. They weren't what I needed in a beach. I needed the ocean breeze wafting the perfume of salt water, warm sand, and suntan lotion around me. All the better if there's a beachside snack shack nearby adding the scent of burgers, hot dogs, and fried clams.

02/23/2014

The beginnings of a delicious white bean soup in the slow cooker. Yes, I Instagram my food.

My husband bought me a slow cooker for Christmas.

He knows me so well. I'd missed having a slow cooker. Our old one -- a Christmas present from John the first year we were dating -- had become unreliable. It would cook at too high a temperature, or switch down to warm just an hour into cooking. It was one of the many things that hit the treelawn ahead of our move from Ohio to New Jersey.

This new toy is a Ninja Cooking System. It can sear and steam-cook as well as slow cook. I love having the option of a slow cooker for meal planning. It makes for more leisurely evenings that would normally be spent in dinner prep.

Since it's just the two of us, slow cooker meals yield a lot of leftovers that are usually frozen for future dinners and lunches. John doesn't like sandwiches every day, so giving him something he can heat up at work is a nice break from the usual for him.

Using a slow cooker has also reminded me that not every slow cooker meal is going to be a success.

02/13/2014

My sister Deb and I after a Connecticut snowstorm a long, long time ago.

Once upon a time, second only to Christmas Eve in terms of delicious anticipation was listening to the radio on a snowy morning as the newscaster droned through the school cancellations for the day.

It was no surprise when Waterbury schools led the list. They cancelled at the sight of a snowflake. Then the list went on until ...

"Region 15, closed."

Woo-hoooooooooooo!

My mother sighed as she knew she would only get half of what she had planned to do done with three kids underfoot. It was amazing how much faster we could get dressed and eat breakfast when we weren't going to school.

I got into Pinterest during my days at Patch, where part of our job was staying on top of social media. It was initially described as "Tumblr for Chicks." Since I'd never gotten into Tumblr, I wasn't sure about Pinterest.

To my surprise, I liked Pinterest right off the bat. It was user-friendly, and allowed me to keep track of links to things I was interested in without having to save them in my bookmarks.

Are you a passionate pinner on Pinterest? What are your favorite social media sites? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments.

I gravitated to my personal interests -- home-related links, recipes and food articles -- when I started on Pinterest. My use of Pinterest has evolved since then. As more friends and family have come to it, their pins have given me interesting things to see and allowed me to connect with them in new ways as they have shared their passions from fashion to fitness. I've started using Pinterest for career-related links as I reinvent myself professionally, expanding from journalism into publishing and marketing.

01/02/2014

I'm feeling a bit contrary. I believe I'll make something a bit more summery for dinner instead of hearty winter fare. Perhaps it's a reaction to the holiday feasting of the past few weeks, but I'm craving something light. I'm thinking lemon-herb chicken breasts.

They're pretty simple: marinate the boneless, skinless chicken breasts for 30 minutes to two hours in lemon juice, olive oil, a pinch of red pepper flakes, a teaspoon of salt (smoked salt works nice here if you have it), a couple of crushed and peeled cloves of garlic, and either fresh or dried herbs like parsley, thyme and rosemary. An herbs de Provence blend works really nice in this. I recommend going the full two hours marinating for maximum flavor, especially if you're using dried herbs. Then grill the chicken, or pan-sear one side and finish in the oven, until the meat has an internal temperature of 160 degrees. Leftovers are delicious in salads or sandwiches, so make extra.

12/31/2013

I had no idea what the end of 2013 would look like when it began. All I knew was that, by the end of January, I would leave my job with Patch and move to New Jersey.

The year has not brought everything I wanted. Our house in Ohio remains rented, and will be going back on the market this spring. After some contract and freelance work, I am still looking for full-time work.

But there's also been a lot of good in our lives, something I focused on during my Month of Gratitude in November. I've been able to stretch my professional muscles a bit, working in new fields. I got to enjoy my high school reunion with my oldest and dearest friends, and reconnected with my wonderful Pomperaug High schoolmates. John is enjoying his work, and has adjusted quite well to life in the New York City area. Let's put it this way: He's learned to drive -- and use the horn -- like a native.

We've been able to give John's dad some great memories, like watching the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks from a prime seat on the Hudson River, and seeing the Rockettes in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

12/23/2013

My biggest challenge in holiday baking -- this year, it's four kinds of cookies, two kinds of chocolate bark, and a cake -- is not getting it all done. It's not eating all the peanut butter/Kiss cookies while the Kisses are still melty.

12/16/2013

I'm one of the teeny faces in this Pomperaug High School yearbook photo from a Christmas concert.

One of the things I love most about the holiday season is the music. Probably a result of being in the school choir from fourth grade all the way through high school and into college.

From the religious classics like O Holy Night to more recent pieces like Christmas Rapping, I turn on the holiday music whenever I can.

When I was growing up, New York television station WPIX shut down programming on Christmas Eve to broadcast The Yule Log, three hours of Christmas music with a video of a fire in the fireplace (working fireplaces being something most people in New York City don't have). We would turn on the Log, and it would be our background music as we relaxed before or after Christmas Eve Mass.